Intellectual Property Checklist for Startup Founders: 10 Steps for 2026

For a software startup, intellectual property mostly means three things: the code, the name and the data. The company should own all three on paper, and it should hold the logins to everything they live in. The IP problems founders bring to us when we take over a project are rarely courtroom fights. They’re a missing contract with a freelancer, a repository in a former developer’s personal account, or a name someone else registered first. This checklist covers what to settle in the first months, in the order we’d do it.

This is general information, not legal advice. IP law differs by country, so check the steps with an IP lawyer where you sell and with the official offices we link.

The four kinds of IP, in one table

Kind	What it protects in a software startup	How you get it	Where and what it costs
Copyright	Code, designs, text, documentation	Automatically, when the work is created	Optional US registration: $45 or $65 online at the US Copyright Office
Trademark	Product name, logo	By using it in trade, and much more safely by registering it	USPTO: $350 per class; UK: from £205; EU: one filing with EUIPO for all EU countries
Patent	A new technical invention, sometimes a software method	Application and examination	A patent office; ask a patent attorney first
Trade secret	Data, algorithms, pricing models, know-how	Keeping it secret, with access rules and NDAs	No filing

1. Make the company the owner

If the founders wrote code or drew designs before the company existed, they still own that work personally. Ask a lawyer to draft a short assignment that moves it into the company. Investors check this in due diligence, and it is cheap to fix early and messy to fix during a round.

2. Get every contributor’s rights in writing

Copyright starts with the person who creates the work. In the US, work an employee does as part of the job usually belongs to the employer. A contractor’s work is different. The US Copyright Office’s Circular 30 on works made for hire lists nine kinds of commissioned work that can count as “made for hire” with a signed agreement. Software isn’t one of them.

So every freelancer, agency and contractor contract should say in writing that the rights in what they make pass to your company. Ask your lawyer how to word it for each country your contractors work in.

3. Keep every account in the company’s name

The code repository, the cloud account, the domain, the Apple and Google developer accounts, the payment account and the analytics should all be registered to your company, with you as the owner. A vendor can work inside them with its own logins. When it’s the other way round, you depend on the vendor to hand things back.

We work this way by default: IPOPBOOKS, a bookkeeping platform we built, went live 10 weeks after kickoff on the client’s own AWS account, not on ours.

4. Use NDAs for what they do

An NDA keeps confidential information confidential. It doesn’t transfer ownership of anything, so it can’t replace the rights clause in step 2. Sign one before you share code, data or a detailed plan. Name what it covers, because a vague NDA is hard to enforce.

5. Check the name, then file the trademark

Before you buy the domain and print anything, search the trademark databases in the countries where you will sell. Then file. Current official fees:

• In the US, the USPTO charges a base fee of $350 for each class of goods or services, plus extra fees if the application is incomplete or complex.
• In the UK, registering a trade mark costs at least £205 and usually takes 3 to 4 months if there are no problems.
• In the EU, one application to the EUIPO protects the mark in all EU countries for 10 years, renewable, according to the EU’s Your Europe guide.

In the US and the UK, each extra class of goods or services adds to the cost, so file only for what you sell.

6. Register copyright where it helps

Copyright in your code exists without registration. In the US, a registration creates a public record of your claim, and it is inexpensive: the US Copyright Office charges $45 online for one work by one author, not made for hire, and $65 for the standard application. Ask your lawyer whether it is worth doing for your product.

7. Talk to a patent attorney before you show an invention

Patents take longer and cost more than trademarks, and software is often hard to patent. If you think you have a new technical method, speak to a patent attorney before you publish it, demo it publicly or pitch it widely. Public disclosure can affect whether you can still file.

8. Protect trade secrets with access rules

Your data, prompts, models and pricing logic are protected only while they stay secret. Give each person access to what they need, remove access on their last day, and keep secret keys out of the code. Write down who can see what.

9. Track open-source licences

Almost every product is built on open-source libraries, and each one comes with a licence. Most allow commercial use. Some put conditions on how you share your product, up to publishing your own source code. Keep a list of the libraries and their licences, and check new ones before they go in. Buyers and investors often ask for this list.

10. Decide how you use AI-written code and content

On 29 January 2025, the US Copyright Office published its report on AI and copyrightability. Its main points: work made with AI help can still be protected where a person decides the expressive parts, prompts alone don’t count as authorship, and material generated entirely by a machine isn’t protected. For a startup, that means two things:

• The parts of your product people review, change and arrange are the parts you can most easily claim. Keep commits and reviews that show human work.
• Check the terms of each AI tool your team uses: who owns the output, and whether your code or data is used for training.

How we would estimate the build, with ownership in mind

A clear scope helps with IP too, because the contract can name exactly what is being made for you.

1. Our project estimate turns your brief into user stories. You confirm what is in scope, and every hour in the budget traces back to a story you kept.
2. We check the hours the model suggests against what our team actually books on finished projects, then multiply by our published rate of $39-55 an hour.
3. It is a planning range, not a fixed quote.

You can run your idea through our project estimate in about four minutes and use the story list in the scope of your contract.

What we would do

1. Assign the founders’ earlier work to the company.
2. Put a written rights clause in every contract with a freelancer, agency or contractor.
3. Open the repository, cloud, domain, store and payment accounts in the company’s name before the first line of code.
4. Search the name, then file the trademark in your first market.
5. Keep a one-page IP register: what you own, where it lives, who has access, which licences you use.
6. Review it before every funding round and every change of team.

When you hire a vendor, check its terms against this list. On our software development outsourcing page, the code, the designs and the accounts are the client’s in a classic project, and we sign an NDA before you share anything if you ask. If you’re about to change teams, read our guide to protecting your IP when you switch development teams.

FAQ

Who owns the code a freelancer writes for my startup?

Copyright starts with the person who creates the work. In the US, software made by a contractor isn’t on the Copyright Office’s list of commissioned works that can be “made for hire”, so contracts usually include a written transfer of rights to the company. This is general information, not legal advice; ask an IP lawyer about your contracts.

How much does it cost to register a trademark in 2026?

The USPTO base fee is $350 per class of goods or services. In the UK it costs at least £205. In the EU, one EUIPO application covers all EU countries. In the US and the UK, each extra class adds to the cost.

Does an NDA protect my startup’s IP?

An NDA protects confidential information while it stays confidential. It doesn’t transfer ownership of code or designs, so it doesn’t replace a rights clause in your contracts.

Can I copyright code written with AI tools?

According to the US Copyright Office’s January 2025 report, work made with AI help can be protected where a person decides the expressive parts, prompts alone don’t count, and purely machine-generated material isn’t protected. Keep records of human review and changes.

When should a startup think about IP?

Before the first line of code: contracts, accounts and the name. Fixing ownership later, during a funding round or a change of team, takes longer and costs more.